Ongoing reports decrying Â“anti-MuslimÂ” Buddhists seem to miss the point: this antipathy did not appear out of thin air but rather in response to Islamic aggressionÂ—the same Islamic aggression the rest of the world is trying to cope with. A Financial Times editorial titled Â“Buddhist militancy triggers international concernÂ” opens by describing the Â“traumatic first-hand viewÂ” of a Muslim woman whose home was attacked and possessions plundered by Buddhists in Sri Lanka. Says the woman: Â“If I could meet those responsible, I would ask: Â‘Sir, does your Lord Buddha teach this?Â’Â”Some paragraphs down, readers discover that her home was attacked...

Historian Michael Hesemann Says There is Proof Pope Benedict XV Tried to Stop Armenian GenocideJust before the world commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, well-known German historian Michael Hesemann announced the discovery of 2000 pages of hitherto unpublished documents on, what he calls “the greatest persecution of Christians in history” in the Vatican Secret Archives. In this in-depth analysis with ZENIT, the historian discusses his findings, what’s often not realized about the Armenian genocide, and its victims, items which he discusses in his new book. He also speaks about the Holy Father’s recent visit to Turkey, why he...

Moscow, March 2, Interfax - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will open a high-level event on the subject of protecting Christians on the sidelines of the 28th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. "Russia is seriously concerned by conflicts in the Middle East which has been the center of monotheistic religions since time immemorial. Regrettably, during these conflicts Christians are not only being harassed and discriminated against, but they also become victims of actions which fall under the definition of the genocide," the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of Information and Press said. Christians in Iraq and...

After jihadists seized the â€‹â€‹Tal Tamr area and at least ten Christian villages, they took 220 people hostage. Judged by an "Islamic court", 19 were released after paying US$ 1,700 per person. Assyrian and Islamic tribal leaders are negotiating the release of the other hostages.Damascus (AsiaNews) - Islamic State (IS) terrorists on Sunday freed 19 of the 220 Assyrian Christians they took hostage in Tal Tamr (Syria) last week, after a US$ 1,700 ransom per person was paid for their release, activists said. "Nineteen Assyrian hostages arrived on Sunday at the Church of Our Lady in Hasakah after they were...

An estimated 375 people turned out for the Germany-based PEGIDA movement's first demonstration in Britain on Saturday, but were outnumbered by a 2,000-strong crowd of counter-protesters, police said. PEGIDA has drawn large crowds in Germany to protest against what it calls the "Islamisation" of Europe, and small demonstrations have also taken place in Austria and Sweden. Police in the city of Newcastle, northeast England, said five men were arrested "for isolated incidents" but insisted both the PEGIDA march and the Newcastle Unites protest passed off smoothly. The five men, aged between 17 and 54, were arrested for alleged offences including...

Rome, Italy, Feb 26, 2015 / 07:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The number of ISIS hostages in Syria has increased to at least 250 after continued attacks on Christian villages, and civilians fleeing to the Turkish border have been stranded when not allowed to cross. “There are 200 families who were running away and trying to escape to Turkey, but the border is closed for Syrians. No Syrian can cross into Turkey,” Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo told CNA Feb. 26. Archbishop Hindo oversees the Syrian archdiocese of Hassake, which is located in the Al-Hasakah region of Syria. The region sits between...

Assyrian Church in Beirut Islamic State militants have reportedly executed 15 Christians who have been captured in villages in northeastern Syria since Monday. A priest who has been feeding reports to Christian aid agencies around the world, including Aleteia partner Aid to the Church in Need, said today that a Christian Assyrian lawyer in the city of Hassakah told him that about 15 young Assyrians "are martyred. Many of them were fighting to defend and protect the villages and families." Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana of CAPNI, the Christian Aid Program in Iraq, said that in the Christian village of Tel Hormizd: 14...

A pastor friend told me last week that he had church members enraged with him when he suggested from the pulpit that we ought to pray for the salvation of Islamic State terrorists. The people in his church told him that he ought to be calling for justice against them, given their brutal murder of Christians, not for mercy. I thought about my friend a few days ago when these murderous fiends beheaded 21 of our brothers and sisters in Christ because they refused to renounce the name of Jesus. I was not just angry; I was furious. Can such...

Washington D.C., Feb 22, 2015 / 04:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The brutal murder of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya at the hands of ISIS last week is shining a light on the reality faced by many of Egypt’s Christians on a daily basis. “These 21 victims, they were not the first and they will not be the last. There is a flowing river of Christian blood in the Middle East,” said Mina Abdelmalak, one of the organizers of a D.C. candlelight prayer vigil outside the White House on Ash Wednesday. The prayer vigil commemorated the 21 Coptic Christians beheaded last...

Like everyone else who cares more about the facts than his own opinions, I’ve recently read Graeme Wood’s excellent Atlantic article “What Isis Really Wants.” Those of you making do with excerpts and pull quotes, stop, and go read the whole thing. That it renders the president’s statements about ISIS absurd is the least of the article’s accomplishments. No one but a small coterie of leftist knuckleheads believes what Obama says on this subject anyway — though it’s unfortunate that the president himself is part of that coterie. Among the many things in the piece that inspire thought is Wood’s...

Most radical Islamic jihadis claim to be devout Muslims who promote the spread of strict conservative Islamic societal principles, yet it has been continuously documented through the years that many of those Muslim extremists are chronically addicted to sex and pornography. Jihadis' obsession with porn and sex is not a new phenomenon that is only being seen today through the "brutal" and "instinctive" sex drive of the Islamic State terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. Even the late Osama Bin Laden, the world-famous leader of Al Qaeda, had a huge collection of porn that was found by Navy Seals who...

Rome on high alert with Islamic State just 300 miles from ItalyAbout 500 extra troops have been stationed around historic sites in Rome after ISIS made threats against the city last week. Italy, which is just 300-miles from jihadi-controlled territory in Libya, was referred to by the terrorists as “the nation signed with the blood of the cross” in a recent video. ISIS has made repeated references to conquering Rome in its various messages, although there is some debate about whether “Rome” in fact refers to a symbolic enemy, or perhaps Turkey or the United Sttaes. However, according to USA...

VATICAN CITY — The Islamic State’s beheading in August of the journalist James Foley stirred global outrage, fury and despair. But for many of his fellow Roman Catholics, Mr. Foley’s death in Syria transformed him into a symbol of faith under the most brutal of conditions. One Catholic essayist compared him to St. Bartholomew, who died for his Christian faith. Others were drawn to Mr. Foley’s account of praying the rosary during an earlier captivity in Libya. Even Pope Francis, in a condolence call to Mr. Foley’s parents, described him as a martyr, according to the family. Then came an...

Act of Solidarity Is Intended to Obtain Peace in Middle EastWith Ash Wednesday yesterday marking the start of Lent, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I has invited Muslims to join Christians in their Lenten fast, reported Fides. In order to obtain “as soon as possible the gift of peace, stability and a dignified lifestyle for our country and for all the Middle East,” the patriarch wrote to his “Muslim brothers and sisters” urging them to join Christians in fasting for a few days during the Lenten season. “The season of Lent,” the patriarch said in a statement, “is a propitious time...

Here is how Russell Moore, the Southern Baptist pastor who heads the churchâ€™s Washington office, responded to the murder of the 21 Coptic Christians by ISIS: These are my brothers, faithful to Christ even unto death. King Jesus puts heads back on, and putsÂ… http://t.co/0Dps0LvtxyÂ— Russell Moore (@drmoore) February 15, 2015 A number of Southern Baptists had similar responses.Â The Southern Baptist bloggers at Pulpit & Pen will have you know that this is a betrayal: Do Southern Baptist leaders and other evangelicals really not know what aÂ ChristianÂ is or how you become one? Is it being born into an ethnic group...

Patriarch Laham says the Middle East is suffering a 'Way of the Cross' in Lenten messageThe Middle East is suffering a “Way of the Cross” that is the greatest tragedy since World War Two, Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham said in his Lenten message. He said the Church, despite its efforts, is having difficulty meeting the growing needs it faces in the region. “We fail in front of the suffering of our people in all walks of life, Christians and Muslims. It’s a universal suffering,” he said. “We as pastors are with our people, at their side, in front...

The brother of two of the 21 Coptic Christians murdered in Libya last week has thanked their killers for including the men's declaration of faith in the video they made of their beheadings. Speaking on a live prayer and worship programme on Christian channel SAT-7 ARABIC yesterday, Beshir Kamel said that he was proud of his brothers Bishoy Estafanos Kamel (25) and Samuel Estafanos Kamel (23) because they were "a badge of honour to Christianity". Harrowing scenes of the murders have been seen around the world. The last words of some of those killed were "Lord Jesus Christ". Beshir Kamel...

I am breaking from my retreat to write with tears a tribute of honour and veneration to our newest martyrs, the 21 martyrs in Libya. These valiant men have offered themselves as a living sacrifice as a testimony before the whole world and all nations. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be a time for you to bear testimony. Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand...

Bishop Antonios Aziz Mina of Giza echoed Pope Francis by hailing the 21 Coptic Christians killed by ISIS as martyrsThe 21 Coptic Christians who were beheaded by ISIS militants died as martyrs, invoking the name of Jesus, said an Egyptian Catholic bishop. In line with Pope Francis’s assertion at morning Mass on February 17, Bishop Antonios Aziz Mina of Giza told the Fides news agency that the “diabolical” video of the Christians’ massacre, intended to “spread terror,” was a testament to their martyrdom in the faith. The video of their beheading, released on Sunday, shows that “in the moment of...

Earlier last week, in an address before French immigrants to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proudly stated that his appearance in the rally last month in Paris and his planned address to the US Congress were in his capacity "not just as the prime minister of Israel but as a representative of the entire Jewish people." Rather than rally behind the prime minister of the Jewish State, Jews driven by a liberal agenda which is often counter to the interests of the Jewish people and the State of Israel chose to immediately go into attack mode. Social media platforms featured...

If violence, terror, beheadings, forced conversions, subjection of women, and intolerance of others are removed or Â“transformedÂ” in Islam, is it still Islam? The Blue Mosque, left, and the Hagia Sophia Museum, right, are pictured at sunset in Istanbul in this Nov. 24, 2008, file photo. (CNS photo/Tolga Bozoglu, EPA) I. The President of Egypt, at Al Azhar University in Cairo, recently did everyone a favor by putting on the table, from inside of the Islamic world itself, the question of its public conduct and inner soul as they relate to the Muslim religion. Does its conduct, as manifest in...

We are hated because we persist in wanting to exist as Christians. In other words, we are hated because we persist in demanding a basic human right.CHRISTIANITY in Iraq is going through one of its worst and hardest stages of its long history that dates back to the first century. Throughout all these long centuries, we have experienced many hardships and persecutions during which we offered caravans of martyrs. During the past year, more than 125,000 Christians have been forced to flee from their villages only because they chose to remain Christians and refused the conditions ISIS imposed on them....

Graeme Wood writes the best analysis and description of the horror of ISIS here atÂ The Atlantic.Â He goes into detail about the roots of ISIS, its relationship to mainstream Islam and the ambitions of the Caliphate. He explains how ISIS combines not only a horribly literalistic interpretation of the Koran, but also how it is interlaced with radical Muslim apocalyptic visions.He sums up the whole article pretty well with thisÂ paragraph The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), follows a distinctive variety of Islam whose beliefs about the path to the Day of Judgment matter...

The apostolic vicar of Tripoli, Libya, has promised to remain with the faithful there, at a time when most foreigners are rushing to leave the embattled country. Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli told Vatican Radio that Islamic militants have entered Tripoli, and prospects for the country’s small Christian minority are bleak. But speaking for those Christians, he said: “We are ready to bear witness to whom we are and to what we do according to the words of Christ.”

February 15, 2015: Islam claims to be the fastest growing religion in the world. That is true, but it’s mainly because Moslems are concentrated in countries with much higher birth rates (largely brought on by corruption and bad government). When you adjust for that and then look at just conversions you’ll note that Christianity and most other religions are converting Moslems at a much higher rate than the other way around...

Soon after Muslim gunmen killed 12 people at Charlie Hebdo offices..., the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)—the... second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations—is again renewing calls for the United Nations to criminalize “blasphemy” against Islam, or what it more ecumenically calls, the “defamation of religions.” Yet the OIC seems to miss one grand irony: if international laws would ban cartoons, books, and films on the basis that they defame Islam, they would also, by logical extension, have to ban the entire religion of Islam itself—the only religion whose core texts actively and unequivocally defame other religions, including by...

Militants declaring loyalty to Islamic State in Libya single out Rome as a targetIslamist militants claiming loyalty to ISIS have released a video appearing to show the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians who were taken hostage in Libya several weeks ago. The video shows men apparently being beheaded after being forced to kneel next to the Mediterranean Sea. A militant says they are sending a message “from the south of Rome”. At the end of the footage the same English-speaking fighter raises his knife to the water and says ISIS would “conquer Rome”. This morning Egypt and the Libyan government...

Eastern Michigan University students taped their mouths shut in a silent protest Thursday. The students wrote #ChapelHillShooting across the tape in honor of the deaths of three students from the University of North Carolina. Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were Muslim-American students at the University of North Carolina. They were shot Tuesday, Feb. 10, by their neighbor, Craig Steven Hicks, 46. The Chapel Hill police released a statement Tuesday evening citing a parking dispute as Hicks’s motivation. EMU Junior Layali Alsada and senior Zaeem Zafar created a flyer...

The Islamic State has announced the killing of 21 Eyptian Christians who were abducted from Libya early in January. A report issued on the internet by the Islamic State said that the Coptic Christians were killed in “revenge for the Muslim women persecuted by Coptic crusaders in Egypt.” The reference was evidently to an incident in which two Egyptian women married to Copts were allegedly pressured to repudiate Islam. The Egyptian government has not confirmed the deaths of the 21 kidnapping victims, but fears that the internet report is accurate. Additional sources for this storySome links will take you to...

Boko Haram forces appear poised to attack Maiduguri, a city of 2 million in northeast Nigeria -- meaning that 200,000 Christians could be at risk of slaughter by the Islamist terror group, say U.S. intelligence officials and experts on Nigeria. "An attack on Madiguri is very likely," said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Project at the Atlantic Council, echoing U.S. intelligence officials. Pham believes, as do other experts, that Boko Haram has already placed "sleeper cells" among the tide of refugees who have fled the group's murderous rampage through Africa's most populous nation. "They've done it everywhere else...

The recent attack on a French satirical magazine renewed Americans’ pass to keep talking seriously about Islam as a threat. In America’s arena of religious intolerance, Muslims are the easiest targets imaginable. So easy, in fact, that another religious movement can chime in on the bigotry of such attacks while keeping a straight face. In light of the political gains being made by the Christian Right, it’s clear that the religious fanatics who should be stopped can less often be found in a mosque than in Congress. The movement does not deserve our tolerance. It’s fascinated by violence, ferociously intolerant...

The last read verses.Here are today's verses: 2:46. (They are those) who are certain that they are going to meet their Lord, and that unto Him they are going to return. 2:47. O Children of Israel! Remember My Favour which I bestowed upon you and that I preferred you to the 'Alamin (mankind and jinns) (of your time period, in the past). 2:48. And fear a Day (of Judgement) when a person shall not avail another, nor will intercession be accepted from him nor will compensation be taken from him nor will they be helped. 2:49. And (remember) when We...

Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, could be dragged into a messy legal battle after a Muslim family demanded that a “non-believer” who was buried next to their relation be exhumed for religious reasons. The unnamed Muslim family raised objections after an 89-year-old Roman Catholic man was buried in a plot adjacent to their relation. Shadrack Smith was buried in the multi-denominational Lychgate Lane Cemetery in Burbage, Leicestershire, following his funeral on Jan 30. Mr Smith had lived in an official gipsy camp in nearby Aston Firs for more than 20 years, and in excess of 400 relations and friends attended...

At a “Defeat Jihad Summit” hosted by the Center for Security Policy, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) noted Wednesday that former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is Mormon, did not travel to New York launch a terrorist attack on “The Book of Mormon."“Right now on Broadway, a play is showing, the Book of Mormon, that is ridiculing and making fun of the Mormon faith," said Cruz. "Last I checked, Mitt Romney didn’t show up on Broadway trying to blow up the stage." (VIDEO-AT-LINK)"It is not a permissible response for anyone of any faith to say if you disagree with or...

For some time, an argument has been made that the liberal left, in refusing to examine the problems of Islam, has betrayed its Enlightenment roots. That is, while secular, feminist, and protective of free speech in dealing with its Western peers, the liberal left has been accused of abandoning its heritage in its quest for political correctness regarding Muslims. In truth, however, the left has a distinguished background of courting Islam as a weapon against Western capitalism. Its most representative figures from the past did so frankly, as the following rehearsal of their statements demonstrates. Karl Marx supported the Ottoman...

The last read verses deal with non-believers (hypocrites) and continues into today's verses. 'These', 'their', 'they' in the following verses refer to non-believers. 2:16. These are they who have purchased error for guidance, so their commerce was profitless. And they were not guided. 2:17. Their likeness is as the likeness of one who kindled a fire; then, when it lighted all around him, Allah took away their light and left them in darkness. (So) they could not see. 2:18. They are deaf, dumb, and blind, so they return not (to the Right Path). 2:19. Or like a rainstorm from the...

Giulio Meotti, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, wrote an interesting Op-Ed which I share here because it portends what is coming to America. It's only a matter of time. This because, like Belgium, America is committing spiritual and intellectual suicide. Giulio Meotti: Belgium is Committing Suicide As the capital of the European Union goes, so goes Europe. And the details are worse than you can imagine. Belgium has the highest per capita number of Islamic terrorists gone to fight in Syria and Iraq than any other European country. Brussels is the capital of the holy war, as well as...

President Obama, during his National Prayer Breakfast speech, Thursday: "No god condones terror. No grievance justifies the taking of innocent lives or the oppression of those who are weaker of fewer in number." All people at all times and locations have the right to defend themselves from terror. Despite Obama's words that have clearly angered people, we can see the following as an example: Christians within the confines of the Byzantine Empire had a right to defend themselves from Muslims who terrorized them, but we all know that Pope Urban II could in no way possible know that anyone who...

Father Basel Yaldo, a Chaldean Catholic priest who has served for the last nine years in suburban Detroit, was ordained on Friday, February 6, as an auxiliary bishop in Baghdad. He was one of two Detroit-area Chaldean priests elevated by Pope Francis. Bishop Yaldo, 44, will serve in Baghdad while the other, 58-year-old Chorbishop Emanuel Shaleta, will serve in Toronto. Nine years ago Father Basel was kidnapped in his native Iraq by anti-Christian extremists. For three days, he was beaten by his captors. After his release he continued to receive death threats, until finally in 2007 he was transferred to...

Baghdad (Agenzia Fides) - The Iraqi national government and the regional Kurdistan government must "allocate the necessary funds to support families that Daesh (Arabic acronym which indicates the jihadists of the Islamic State, ed) expelled from their homes and deprived their property". In addition, all "national and international forces" must "unite their intent to liberate the occupied territories as soon as possible and put in place the necessary measures to protect Christians and other Iraqis, so they all return to their homes and live in safety and with dignity". These are the appeals launched by the Extraordinary Synod of the...

1. Surah Al-Fatihah (The Opening) 1:1. In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. 1:2. All the praises and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the 'Alamin (mankind, jinns and all that exists). 1:3. The Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. 1:4. The Only Owner (and the Only Ruling Judge) of the Day of Recompense (i.e. the Day of Resurrection) 1:5. You (Alone) we worship, and You (Alone) we ask for help (for each and everything). 1:6. Guide us to the Straight Way 1:7. The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not (the...

Conservative media were in an uproar last week over the President’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. He said that we see “faith being twisted and distorted … sometimes used as a weapon” and “lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ." Nearly everyone took the statement to mean “Catholic pot, don’t call the Muslim kettle black.” And they were quick to point out that the “terrible deeds in the name of Christ” were...

What is wrong with this man? In the midst of what has been a videotaped bloodbath in recent weeks with stonings, beheadings, and one man even being set aflame, President Obama took to the podium of the National Prayer Breakfast to criticize the â€śterrible deedsâ€ť . . . committed â€śin the name of Christâ€ť throughout the pass two thousand years or so. "And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ," he said. "In our...

I was so much hoping to get a Q&A lined up with Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano on the subject of Sharia Law in Texas. He’s got a bill that would prohibit family court rulings based on foreign legal codes if that violated our own constitutional protections. These kinds of bills and state constitutional amendments have popped in several states and have been adopted in a bunch. They’re widely accepted as trying to keep the Islamic legal code at bay. A story in the Houston Chronicle mentioned Leach’s bill in its coverage of the anti-Muslim furor at the Capitol last...

Group aims to take back Nineveh Plains from IslamistsChristians in Iraq have formed a militia to take back their Nineveh Plains homeland from ISIS. The organisation, the Nineveh Plains Protection Units, has more than 3,000 troops serving or awaiting training, and has the backing of the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Peshmerga. The force has 500 Assyrian Christian troops stationed in towns such as Alqosh in the Nineveh Plains to defend them from ISIS, with a further 500 being trained and another 3,000 men registered and awaiting training. Their aim is to take back the rest of the Nineveh Plains,...

Egyptian Christians have seen notable gains under the government of President Abd al-Sisi, the spokesman for the country’s bishops tells the AsiaNews service. Father Rafic Greiche pointed to three new building permits for Catholic churches. He reported that permits for Christian churches were never granted during the rule of former President Hosni Mubarak, nor under the government that followed him, which was dominated by Islamic fundamentalists. Some applications for permits to build churches date back more than a decade, Father Greiche said.

After a debate of more than an hour, Lexington's Board of Adjustment voted 6-1 Friday to allow an Islamic community center on Armstrong Mill Road. The existing Islamic Center, on South Limestone, had applied for a conditional use permit for a worship center on a 9-acre site on Armstrong Mill Road currently zoned agricultural.

I was once in Istanbul speaking at a conference on “The Coming Dialogue of Civilizations.” The Turks know (or knew before recent re-Islamization) that if Samuel Huntington’s “clash” of civilizations arrives, they’ll be caught in the middle.Because I had to visit other Turkish cities, I missed participating in a call-in (actually FAX-in) show arranged for the non-Turkish speakers. The FAX machine spat out the first viewer comment: “You are all infidels and shall die tonight.”A conference colleague, a Brit with much experience in the Middle East, related this to me later. None of the panelists were surprised. They knew it...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Texas Muslim Capitol Day is a good thing and has been going on since 2003. Its function is to have Muslims in the community meet lawmakers and learn about the political process. That's a surprisingly progressive thing to do in Texas, but as usual it turned ugly when conservative Christian protesters showed up and yelled Islamophobic rants at those participating in the event. Texas Muslim Capitol Day, which began in 2003, is organized by the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and brings members of Muslim communities in Houston, Dallas and other areas of the state to...